Jewish Settlers go on rampage after gunship attack

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Settlers go on rampage after gunship attack

Jewish settlers went on the rampage near Hebron late today, shooting and wounding three Palestinians as Israeli helicopter gunships fired into this West Bank town, witnesses said.

One Palestinian was shot in the head by a group of settlers near the Arab village of Sair north of Hebron, they said. Settlers also set fire to Palestinian-owned cars found near the Telem settlement west of Hebron.

Air strikes And Israeli helicopters fired machine-guns on Hebron and Nablus, AFP correspondents reported, after an earlier wave of air strikes against Palestinian targets.

The shooting occurred about an hour after Prime Minister Ehud Barak's adviser on political and military affairs announced a halt to the rocket attacks against targets in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Witnesses in Nablus said the helicopters targeted a police station near Joseph's Tomb, scene of fierce clashes during the unrest that has rocked the Palestinian territories since September 28 at a cost of more than 100 lives.

Lynching Israeli TV showed dramatic footage of the lynching of Israeli soldiers by an incensed Palestinian crowd in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The film, shot by an Italian television crew, showed chaotic images of hundreds of enraged Palestinians storming the Palestinian police station where the soldiers were being held.

Mob attack Two soldiers were distinguishable, but it was impossible to determine from the images if they were dead or alive as they were consumed by the frenzied crowd, who set about kicking and beating them with sticks and pieces of metal.

One of the soldiers was thrown from a window into the crowd.

Beating Israeli television showed what it said was the town's Palestinian police chief through an upstairs window, participating in the beating of one of the soldiers.

Behind him, the arms of the mob could be seen raining down blows on a figure.

The Palestinian Authority tried to confiscate film of the incident taken by the crew, according to Israeli television.

TV crew attacked A US television network ABC News team was attacked while filming the lynching of Israeli soldiers by a Palestinian mob today in the Palestinian-controlled territory of Ramallah, ABC News said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Palestinian police must bear the blame for the "horrifying" lynching.

"Responsibility for these very grave incidents must be borne by the mob and the Palestinian police," Barak told a press conference in Tel Aviv.

Three soldiers 'mutilated' Three Israeli soldiers were killed, according to Communications Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer.

Israeli TV said the bodies of the three men were "atrociously mutilated".

Earlier, the Israeli army said four soldiers were detained by Palestinian police in Ramallah, of whom two were killed by the crowd. Ben Eliezer said nothing about the fate of the fourth Israeli.

National emergency government Barak wants to form a "national emergency government" with the help of Ariel Sharon, a leading opponent of peace deals with the Palestinians.

Oil prices rocket World oil prices soared above $US36 a barrel today amid the worsening crisis.

A strike of Venezuelan oil workers also helped push prices up, with light sweet crude for November delivery rising $US2.81 to $US36.06 a barrel at the close here.

Traders expressed concern about oil supplies amid escalating violence in the Middle East and the explosion in Aden harbour which US officials said was probably a terrorist attack. - AFP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0010/13/update/news1.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 13, 2000


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